I'm Gonna Write About Ted Lasso, Maybe

 Hey,

It's me, Ken. I used to write about movies on this site. Now, I... don't write movies at all. I have a 9-5 job where I do a lot of writing and it's pretty much zapped my energy when it comes to writing anything else, but enough about my personal "problems".

I'm thinking, maybe, if I have enough motivation, I might write about this final season of "Ted Lasso". Yes, I'm a "Ted Lasso" fan, or... was. Or... I'm not sure where I'm at anymore. First two seasons were fantastic. This season... has been a meandering mess, in my opinion. There've been high points and low points. There have been befuddling moments and moments that make me pump my fist. I want this show to be good. I root for this show like Richmond roots for its football club. But, man, why does it feel like things have gone flat this season?

I don't like to check my phone while watching a TV show or a movie. I'll do it more often during a TV show, though, and I did it during episode 10, season 3 of Ted Lasso. Midway through the episode, I had to check... is this really the final season? Like, there's only three episodes left and this is third-to-last one? There's only two episodes after this one?

If so, why doesn't it feel that way? All the plotlines in the episode do not give me the impression that this show is about to wrap everything up for good. The first thing that threw me off was AFC Richmond taking a break for international play. Fine. But, shouldn't that be like... an episode 3 thing? An early season thing? This team has started to master this triangle-style of play, which is one of the things I've found fascinating about this season, and yet episode 10 is an example of what's been frustrating me.

These episodes are too long. There are too many characters. We follow too many plot lines. We often lose characters along the way so we can spend an inordinate amount of time on the 10th or 11th lead of the show. We get it, you like your characters. You think you have a great cast on your hands. And you do! But this show is about to wrap up. There's two episodes left and we barely see Ted Lasso at all. We focus on Rebecca's relationship with her ex... why exactly? Nate quit coaching West Ham United, or got fired, or whatever... because he wouldn't fuck around on his girlfriend? So that storyline is just over? Or is Nate gonna magically get that job back in one of the last two episodes?

Seriously, what the fuck did these writers do to Nate? Much respect to all writers during these times as the WGA continue to strike, but Ted Lasso writers, I'm sorry... what the fuck? Season 2 ends with Nate with a full head of gray hair wearing a West Ham United uniform. Holy shit, Nate's joined the dark side! And he's become a real heel for the show! Except... no. Whatever rivalry between Nate and Ted dies a few episodes into season 3. What was that all for? Nate and Ted have a real heart-breaking conversation in the season 2 finale and now Nate is back to being a puppy dog again. We've focused more on this budding relationship he has with this Polish waitress, which... great. I'm glad he's found love. Isn't he supposed to be the villain of this season? Villains can find love, that's fine, but this whole storyline has completely gotten in the way of whatever was going in between him and Ted. They've barely interacted. There's no confrontation. When the two teams played each other, Nate wanted to apologize to Ted more than fight him. That felt too soon. We barely got to see hard-ass Nate in season 3. We barely got to see him at work. I'm stunned by how unsatisfying that storyline became. I'm not saying Nate has to become a one-dimensional asshole, but I thought the whole point of his dissolution with Ted was to show an alternative style of coaching. Nate's "wunderkind"/hard-ass style of coaching... maybe his players don't like him as much, but maybe it gets the job done too? Considering he actually knows the game? Ted's stumbled upon this triangle style of play for his team, which is great, but now Nate no longer coaches West Ham, so what now? He's gonna re-join AFC Richmond and he and Ted are gonna have a nice "diamond dogs" chat and cry together?

I loved the character of Ted in the first two seasons. He was a lovable, positive presence in season 1 that slowly won everyone over. In season 2, we got to see there's a darkness, a sadness behind that facade. In season 3, he's just... kinda here. He had that epiphany about triangles and he misses his son, but it feels like there's a third step missing. I feel like there's been an elephant in the room this entire season and now there's two episodes left and I feel like there's not gonna be a payoff. I'm not saying Ted needs to lose his cool, but it'd be nice to see him have a backbone and it feels like he's missing one in season 3. The way he handled Zava, the pressure Rebecca puts him under about really needing to win, his ex-wife dating somebody else, his estrangement from his son, that video of Nate ripping the "Believe" poster... at a certain point, it starts feel like... is he incapable of getting angry? I'm not saying he has to flip a table, but Nate's confrontation with him at the end of season 2 made me think that Ted's buttons might really get pushed this season. We come to find out that his style of coaching isn't for everyone, and that there are imperfections inherent in his philosophy. Nate felt left out and unimportant. Maybe Nate's big speech to Ted was unwarranted, maybe he was completely in the wrong. But Nate wearing that West Ham United uniform at the end of season 2 made me believe we were in for a big confrontation, a clash of styles. Ted really getting his philosophy put to the test. His buttons finally getting pushed too much. 

I'm not saying Ted has to yell. He doesn't have to shout. A simple "Hey, that's not cool" would be nice. He did have that kind of conversation with his ex-wife about her new relationship, and that was good. But that hasn't been built upon. We haven't seen him confront his players, his coaches, his former assistants, rival coaches, rival owners... no one. We have two episodes left and I'm worried that there isn't enough time to put a nice enough bow on this thing. Loose ends can't get tied up because there's too many of them now. Sure, they can all get tied up in one big montage or whatever, but I'm worried that's not gonna feel satisfying either. I'm just straight up worried about this show and what it's turned into. There's no reason for 60+ minute episodes. It's always been a comedy-drama, but this season seldom has been funny and it really isn't that dramatic. There's a lot of pleasant conversations with people who are nice to each other. There are some unpleasant conversations... which are still wrapped up rather nicely. Everything is... nice. Ted Lasso season 1... only Ted was nice! And Keeley. Sure, Keeley was nice too, but her storyline... look, I'm glad she's become a successful businesswoman but we spend A LOT of time on her this season and on her new relationship and then that storyline just goes nowhere too. 

Here's how I feel, plainly... the time we spend away from the football club is time wasted. It's like the writers don't give shit about soccer/football at all. But it's not even that, a lot of the drama has nothing to do with the team, either on the field or behind the scenes. Instead we're spending time with Nate and his girlfriend, Keeley and her girlfriend/business, Sam and his restaurant... these storylines can exist, but my god, we spend way too much time with each of them and it does the show a disservice. We've gone way off course. We've lost focus. If this was the penultimate season or season 3 of 5, I wouldn't mind any of this as much. But this is the FINAL season. Can start to act like it? We gotta get back to business here. This football team, their progress, Ted's progress as a coach, Ted's home life, his rivalry with Nate (though that seems like it's over), Jamie and Roy's training turning into Jamie becoming an elite player on the field (isn't that what that excess training is supposed to be about? Why are we not seeing any of the results of that? Are we really waiting for the finale for Jamie to do something really cool and then we're supposed to say "wow, the training... finally... paid off... now. I'm glad we waited 'til now to see if Roy's training actually helped Jamie in a meaningful way!"

Ok, I gotta stop there. It's getting late. I have two more episodes left to watch. The finale is this Wednesday. I think I'll watch it when it gets released and then I'll give my final thoughts. But... yeah... I'm worried. Like I said, I do like some stuff about this season, but there's a part of me that wonders if this show just kinda sucks now. Cause if so, we only had 3 seasons and for the show to wrap up this way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Please put my fears to rest and nail the finale, Ted Lasso writers.